Schalke do the unthinkable against Chelsea by Adelani Ogunrinade.
Last year in this fixture, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba helped Chelsea cruise to a 3-0 win against Schalke. The blues beat the German club in both the home and the away fixtures.
Before last night, I would have bet my last dollar on Chelsea thrashing Schalke given their flawless record at Stamford Bridge and their eclectic form of late.
Schalke had not scored a single goal against Chelsea in 4 attempts going into the match. However, the Group G clash between these two teams yesterday was no walk in the park for Mourinho’s men.
John Terry, who made his 600th start in all competitions for Chelsea was shaky in defence as Schalke’s best player, Julian Draxler squandered several opportunities to open the scoring.
It was the home team however that scored first when Cesc Fabregas neatly tucked away a pass from Hazard. The blues were lucky not to have the goal disallowed as Fabregas committed a foul that was ignored by the referee minutes before he scored.
Ivorian legend, Didier Drogba looked a shadow of his first stint at Chelsea and the man that scored the winning goal in the 2012 Champions League final. With a younger quality striker like Loic Remy on the bench, one is left wondering why Jose Mourinho didn’t start with the Frenchman.
Diego Costa and Loic Remy eventually came on and produced flat performances in Chelsea’s pursuit to bag all three points. Some nice interplay by Schalke saw the Chelsea defence collapse and led to Dutchman Klaas-Jan Huntelaar smashing the ball past Courtois after the hour mark.
At the end of the night, it was a vital point secured for Schalke-who gave a spirited performance. The wild celebrations by the German outfit after the final whistle blew was like they had just won a Champions League final.
Next up for Chelsea is a difficult match against Manchester City. Let’s see if Ramirez & co can make the “Happy one” smile once again after failure to get all three points from a side history suggests they should easily have beaten.